The present invention relates to an electronic device with a main side having user connection means such as a keyboard with keys and a display.
Portable electronic devices can be held in hand such as calculators, pagers, organizers and other calculation or communication devices, such as mobile telephones or cordless telephones. Such devices are ever smaller and lighter and the functions and services they provide increase. It thus becomes possible to combine various devices. However, the size reduction notably of present-day mobile telephones is restricted by several components whose size is not easy to reduce, such as the keyboard or the display. It is possible to use a device with a sliding or tilting keyboard, but in open position the keys on the sliding or tilting part are not easy to handle: only the main part is held in hand and there is no firm support for a pressure on this or that key on the sliding or tilting flap that supports the keys of the keyboard.
From European patent EP-A-0 472 361 is notably known a portable workstation comprising a personal computer and a mobile telephone in one and the same construction. This device comprises a pivoting keyboard part that enables to change from a mobile telephone keyboard to a keyboard of a personal computer, which change is accompanied with the change from a small display to a large display. During this movement, however, the size of the device is notably increased and the keys of the mobile telephone keyboard remain accessible, not protected, and may be operated inadvertently.
According to the invention, the drawbacks of the prior art are diminished or suppressed thanks to the fact that the electronic device indicated in the first paragraph is characterized in that a first part of the keyboard is fixed and that a second part, permanently firmly attached to said device, comprises positioning means so that it is movable between two operational positions for which said device retains an invariable size, a first position in which said keyboard is called reduced and a second position in which said keyboard is called extended, and such that the change from one position to the other renders the keys of the keyboard accessible to said user for the end position and keys of the keyboard inaccessible for the starting position.
In this manner, the change from an electronic device to a device of another configuration but having the same size is complete and exclusive and a correct push on the keys of the keyboard is ensured for both configurations.
Preferably, in the second position, with the keyboard extended, the movable part of the keyboard masks part of said display. Thus, the change from an extended keyboard to a reduced keyboard is accompanied with an enlargement of the display.
A preferred embodiment of the invention is characterized in that said movable part of the keyboard comprises pivoting means for pivoting from one to the other around a hinge located on said main side, between an edge of the display and an edge of the first fixed part of the keyboard, and in that this movable part of the keyboard comprises a key configuration on each of its main sides, and connection means for connecting to electronic elements located inside the housing of the device.
Advantageously, the connection means are formed by a flat cable of conducting wires which run across the main side of the device through a recess made at the level of said hinge. The device according to the invention, realized thus, is well adapted notably for forming a mobile telephone in its first extended-keyboard position and an organizer in its reduced-keyboard position. The combination of a mobile telephone with another device, notably an organizer, is interesting because, for example, the organizer enables to immediately register pieces of information obtained by telephone.